The Aftermath of a Bet
by enchantinginsanity
Summary: When Axl Heck has to date the responsible junior class president, he knows making a bet about the matter was a bad idea. With 700 dollars on the line, he starts to date her, only to run into a problem. Rather than her falling for him, he starts to fall for her. Warnings: overused plot, cliché situations, OOC. Don't like? Don't read.
1. Prologue: The Bet

Warning: Probable OOC, grammar mistakes, cliché situations, and irregular update schedule.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Middle (if you haven't guessed it already)

Prologue: The Bet

**Axl**

As he entered into the classroom, Axl Heck heard his teacher announce a new seating chart. He walked to the front of the room and scanned the clipboard for his name. When he found it, he found the desk and put his backpack down next to the chair. He looked to see the person he was deemed to sit next to, and he put on the most charming smile out of all of his smiles before he talked to the girl that sat in her chair already.

"'Sup?" he said to her while giving her a sly smile. However, instead of a response, all he received was her rolling her eyes and she moved her chair as far from him as she could go without leaving her assigned desk. When the bell rung, all Axl can think about is how the girl ignored his very obvious attempt to get her interested in him.

'Why didn't she respond to the "sup?" Every girl falls for it, honestly, who wouldn't? I'm irresistible,' he thought to himself instead of listening to the teacher's lecture on American politics. When the bell rung an hour after his failed attempt to get the girl's attention, he slung his bag over his shoulder before striding out of the door.

"Yo Ax-Man!" yelled a familiar voice from behind him. Axl turns around with a grin when he recognizes the voice of one of his best friends.

"Sean!" Axl said in return. They exchanged high fives when they reached each other.

"So I heard you couldn't pick up a hot chick," he said. Axl's eyes widen in shock. The class only just ended, how on earth did he find out about the incident already?

"How did you hear about that?" Axl said to him as quickly and quietly as he can, he didn't want to draw attention to himself from the other students and teachers that occupied the school's hallways and classrooms. It was quite a humiliating event for someone like him, and he wanted as little people as possible to find out what happened in the classroom.

"How could I not find out? The 'great' Axl Heck was finally turned down by a girl. Completely shot down! This is hilarious! It made my day, thanks man," Sean said and laughed when Axl released a frustrated groan.

"I can pick up girls. She wasn't even that hot, and she was probably a nerdy loser. You know how they are, always playing hard to get," Axl tried to convince himself as well as Sean, trying his best to maintain the little pride he had left.

"That was _Amanda Samson _who shot you down. One of the hottest girls in our grade. The girl who sleeps around with every guy who asks for it, the hardcore partier who you always see with a beer no matter what party we're at. What do you mean she 'wasn't that hot?' You're just losing your touch," Sean snickered. Axl sighed. He knew Sean was right. If he couldn't even get Amanda Samson's attention, that meant he was most certainly doing something wrong. Never did Amanda Samson ever turn down a guy, no matter how ugly, how nerdy, or how cheesy his pickup line was. Axl ran a hand through his hair before responding to Sean.

"I can get any girl. Trust me. That was during first period, it was still early, it was way too early for anybody to respond to a pickup line. Any girl would _kill _to get a piece of this," Axl said and gestured to his body as he said the last sentence. Sean raised an eyebrow at Axl, not believing him after the morning's incident.

"You know Axl, it doesn't even really matter. Maybe you can focus more on school or trying to get into college, or something… Instead of trying to get girls all the time," Sean said to him. Out of their friend group, Sean was the most focused on studies, the most responsible, and overall, the son most mothers dreamt of having— including Axl's own mother.

"Shut it Sean. I'm going to get a girl, she won't be able to handle the Ax-Man's charm," he said with confidence.

"Alright then Axl," Sean said. He knew it was nearly impossible to convince Axl not to do something once his mind was set. He gave up on trying to get Axl to focus on something other than picking up as many girls as possible.

"I'm so certain, that I'll bet you _money_," Axl said to his friend.

"No," Sean said. He knew of the Heck family's financial situation and didn't want to take money from his friend.

"Come on Sean," Axl said to his friend. Sean sighed, and not wanting to hear his friend's whining, begrudgingly agreed. "50 bucks says I'll get a girl to drool all over me in one week," Axl said.

"Too easy! 100 bucks says you'll get a girl to be your girlfriend and go to the homecoming dance and prom with you," Sean said completely letting go of his usual gentlemanly attitude.

"200 says I'll get her to be my girlfriend, come with me to homecoming and prom, she'll even ask me to the Sadie Hawkins dance," Axl said.

"400 says she'll be your girlfriend, go to homecoming and prom with you, ask you to Sadies, and even say she _loves_ you," Sean said to Axl.

"Make that 600," Axl replied with a cunning smile.

"Only if I get to choose which girl," Sean grinned.

"If you bring it up to 700," Axl challenged his friend.

"Do the whole thing by the end of junior year and we have a deal," Sean said. Axl nodded and they both spat on their own palms of their hands before shaking hands with a smile.

"Easiest 700 I'll ever make," Axl said deviously. He didn't know a single girl who wouldn't fall for him. "Which girl?" Axl said while crossing his hands over his chest.

"That girl," Sean said and pointed at a girl. For the first time after the topic was brought up Axl felt the feeling of pure dread overcome him. He watched the familiar girl walk into a math classroom as he shut his eyes and thought to himself _'maybe this wasn't such a good idea,' _as the bell rang and the tardy sweep caught him.


	2. Chapter 1: The Beginning

Warnings: Probable OCC, grammar mistakes, cliché situations, and irregular update schedule

Disclaimer: I do not own the Middle

Chapter 1: Beginning

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><p><strong>Axl<strong>

"Now, if you observe lines 8-12," Mrs. Peterson droned on about a poem that they had read in class, the Eolian Harp. Axl Heck sat in his desk, not paying any attention to the words of his teacher.

As words about the Eolian Harp by Samuel Taylor Coleridge rung through the room full of students, Axl Heck ran his hand through his hair. He watched as the clock ticked away. He was grateful that there were only 10 more minutes to endure before the school day would be over. A smart girl who sat in front of him scribbled down notes on the teacher's lecture while he did it again. His thoughts were completely flooded with worry regarding the bet he had made just a few minutes previously with Sean. _Addilyn Hayward? _Out of all of the girls in the entire school, Sean just had to choose her, didn't he? Addilyn Hayward was the most responsible girl in his grade. She was junior class president, National Honors Society junior president, in-charge of three different clubs, and on top of all of that, she was the teacher's favorite in every class since they were in kindergarten. He ran his hand through his hair in frustration again. He knew for a fact that Addilyn Hayward did _not _date. The last guy that asked her out was turned down without a moment of hesitation on her part. Apparently she was too busy with her responsibilities and studies to even think about guys. He thought of possible scenarios that will occur when he talked to her while he ran his hand through his locks again. And once more before his English teacher stopped talking and turned her attention to him.

"Mr. Heck, you are not suffering from any type of contagious scalp disease, are you?" she said to him. He could hear snickers and snorts from a few of his classmates and he rolled his eyes before answering her.

"No ma'am, I don't believe I have a scalp disease, I'm perfectly fine," he answered her while making direct eye contact with the woman while giving her a slight smile, trying to get her attention back to the lecture as quickly as possible, rather than on him.

"Well then, I suggest you stop fiddling with your hair, pick up a pencil, and take some notes," she said to him in a sharp tone.

"Yes ma'am," Axl said and picked a pen off of his desk. He didn't take notes; he wasn't the type to do that sort of thing. He sat in his desk with a pen in his hand, too engrossed in his own thoughts to take notes on the poem. He didn't know what to do about the bet; it was a bad decision he had made in the spur of the moment.

When the class was finally over, Axl was the first out of the classroom; ready to go and tell Sean he wasn't being serious when he had made the bet.

"Sean! I was just kidding. The bet was a complete joke, you know that, right?" Axl said to his friend when he saw him in the hallway.

"What bet?" asked Darrin, who wasn't present at the time the bet was made between the two other boys. Sean explained the situation to Darrin, who even after having heard the explanation still didn't quite seem to understand.

"Hey you already made the bet, it wasn't even my idea to start out with. It was your idea, and we already spat on it!" Sean told Axl still tried his hardest to cancel the whole bet.

"Come on Sean! You know I can't afford to pay anyone 700 dollars," Axl said. He knew that the girl Sean had handpicked would be impossible to attract.

"Then why did you make the bet in the first place? It seems pretty irresponsible to me that you would make a bet when you don't even have money," Sean said with his left eyebrow raised.

"Come on man! I'm not responsible! Do you remember a time when I was? No! I'm not responsible! Just let me off the hook!" Axl whined.

"I tried to stop you," Sean put both of his hands up as if that would prove him innocent.

"Well then you should've tried harder!" Axl said in an upset voice.

"Look Axl, I really have to head home, I promised my mom I'd run an errand for her. Look, there she is now, why don't you go talk to her?" Sean jerked his chin in the direction of Addilyn.

"Ugh!" Axl groaned and turned to look at the girl. He saw her talking to another guy, and he could easily hear their words from his location a few yards away due to the relatively quiet hallway. It was never that loud in that particular area, it was the corner of the hallway, a dead end that not many people went to—only the people who had lockers there. And there were only a few dozen of them. Half of them didn't even use their locker due to the inconvenient and isolated location.

"I just need your opinion on the junior homecoming t-shirt designs…" he heard Peter, the junior vice class president, say to her.

"Don't worry about getting my opinion on this kind of thing Pete, I trust your judgment. I'm sure everything will turn out absolutely great," she said with a soft smile.

"Are you sure? Because I don't want to mess up and then have everything be ruined 'cause then it'll be my fault and—"

"Pete. They're t-shirts. Calm down. They look great," Addilyn interrupted Peter's sentence, giving him reassurance.

"Alright, thanks. I'll go give these to Mr. Smith then?" Peter asked her. Mr. Smith was the teacher who supervised the student government.

"Sounds good! I'll see you tomorrow, I have to head to Spanish club, I'm the president and it's the first official meeting that I'm running," she said in reply.

"Little Miss Responsible, president of everything," Peter teased and gave Addilyn a little hip bump, sending her into a locker.

"Pete!" her voice shrilled and she gave him a playful punch in the bicep. He laughed and feigned hurt before saying goodbye and leaving her alone standing at her locker. Axl realized that since she was heading to a club, he had to catch her quick.

"'Sup?" Axl asked her while leaning against the locker next to the one she was grabbing her belongings out of. He took the same approach to get her attention as he did for the girl in his American Government/Politics class.

"Excuse me?" was her response to his greeting. Axl's smile didn't falter, and he continued to talk to her—except it didn't really work out very well.

"You're excused," he said to her immediately. He didn't realize how she would interpret his words, and he was shocked at her response.

"Alright, thanks, I guess," she said and turned around to walk in the opposite direction, with a textbook clutched in her arms close to her chest.

"Wait! That wasn't what I meant, I uh…" Axl tried to gather his words together to form a coherent sentence, but that obviously didn't go so well.

"Exactly what do you want from me?" she stopped walking and turned around to face him. Axl examined her face for the first time; she wasn't really the type of girl he would talk to regularly. The only thing he knew about her was her name, her status in student government, and clubs.

"Amanda, right? Or is it Anna? Perhaps Alexandra?" he asked her. He knew her name, but hoped that by playing a more confident, cocky, attitude than usual, she would fall for him. Most girls liked guys who acted that way, which was how Axl had gotten so many girls in the past to like him.

"It's Addilyn, actually. Now answer my question. What do you want?" she said to him.

"I just was wondering if you wanted to see a movie… or something," he said to her. He played the 'shy guy' card, since she didn't respond well to his confident attitude he had initially had when he approached her.

"Look, I'm busy, surely you'll know that I don't have time for you," she said bluntly. She turned around, her ponytail whipping around with her—almost hitting him in the face—as she started to take her journey away from him. She didn't get very far. Axl clasped his hand onto her shoulder, effectively stopping her before she got very far.

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><p>Next update: 1228


	3. Chapter 2: The Meeting

Warnings: Probable OOC, grammar mistakes, cliché situations, and irregular update schedule.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Middle

*This is an unedited version, I will be editing this chapter in the next few days. If you wish to read the edited version, it'll be up on December 29th (at the latest).

Chapter 2: The Meeting

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><p>When Axl's hand came in contact with Addilyn's shoulder, he felt her jump a very slight bit in shock. He raised an eyebrow at her reaction, but didn't say anything about it.<p>

"What do you think you're doing? Take your hand off!" he heard her say through tightly clenched teeth. He didn't listen to her, which wasn't out of character for him. He didn't listen to most of the things his mother asked him to do at home, he didn't listen to teachers when they asked him to do something at school, he didn't listen to his siblings most of the time, listening to people just wasn't something he did often. Her head whipped around and she made direct eye contact with him. "Look, I have a club meting to run that's starting in approximately two minutes. I would appreciate it if you let go of me," used what seemed to be like a forced civilized tone of voice. He stifled his laughter and quickly replied to her.

"No thanks. I think I'm quite comfortable here," he kept a smirk on his face. Just to get her more riled up, Axl didn't move his hand at all, and instead started to use his thumb to create little circles on her shoulder blades. His ego was inflated when he felt her shiver very slightly—almost unnoticeably. He saw her left foot take a step, and he copied her actions, even though it was very clear—even to him—that she wanted to get away from him.

"Why can't you just leave me be?" Addilyn turned around _again_ to face him. Axl had to suppress a laugh that was about to escape his lips. He could no longer count how many times she had spun around to face him, and then spun back around to walk away from him, only to spin right back to continue their discussion. He imagined that she probably felt really dizzy. He could hear that in her voice, there was a little more agitation than before. 'So even Miss Responsible can lose her cool, can she now?' Axl thought to himself with a little bit of satisfaction. He had never seen a side of the Junior Class President where she wasn't the teacher's favorite.

"I'm staying with you until you agree to watching a movie and having dinner with me," he said. Even if it wasn't true (it wasn't, he had football practice starting in an hour), he wanted to see just how angry he could get her. It wasn't even about trying to get her because of the bet; it was because her reactions were very entertaining for the athlete. He felt her jab her index finger into his chest with great force, and he wondered if she could feel his muscles through his shirt. And if she could, was she enjoying it? It probably wasn't everyday she got to feel a guy's body.

"Listen. I'll say it once, and once only, so you better listen to me. I am _not _going to go _anywhere _with someone like you. I am _not _going to agree to meet you at the theatre, I am _not _going to get ready in a nice dress and wait for you to pick me up, and I am most certainly _not _going to be stood up by someone like _you._ After waiting for hours at a movie theatre for boys who'll never come, after changing out of dresses because a boy who promised to pick me up doesn't show up… I'm not going to agree to _another _date that'll _never _happen. I've agreed to dinner, movies, picnics, and even _cliff jumping_ with people you call your teammates. And I've been stood up by every single one of them who made the offers. I know to someone like you, it may seem impossible, but I actually have a _dream. _I know what I want to do, and I know that it certainly is not getting stood up by boys who only asked me out on the first place as a laugh! Leave me alone. I have a Spanish Club meeting to get to." Addilyn said with a huff before walking away from him—without looking back at him.

Axl let out a sigh when she was out of view, and he saw Sean walking towards him.

"Sean? I thought you were running an errand for your mom?" Axl said recalling that his friend had left him a few minutes ago to help Mrs. Donahue.

"Nah, I just said that to get you away from me and closer to our favorite junior class president," he said with a grin. "Nice conversation, by the way,"

"Stop," Axl said and groaned loudly. He didn't know that Sean was listening to the conversation, and he also knew how awfully the conversation went, and he wasn't ready to relive it just yet.

"So, are you going to go after her?" Sean asked him.

"What? She's not even here anymore," Axl said to his friend with an expression of confusion on his face.

"Even though I want those 700 bucks really badly, I think I should help you out a bit, as my friend. Spanish club room 136. Go," Sean said to him. Axl raised an eyebrow before running off to room 136, completely ignoring the school rule of 'no running in the hallways.'

Axl made it to room number 136 and he stopped in front of the room before entering straight away. He stood in front of the room, out of view of the window next to the door of the classroom. He heard murmurs of someone's words from inside of the classroom, but couldn't recognize who was speaking or what they were saying. Since Addilyn had mentioned that she would be the one to run the meeting, he assumed that she was probably the one talking to the rest of the club members, and decided to enter the classroom.

"The Ax-man is in the house!" Axl whooped as he opened the door and made his grand entrance. Most of the students in the classroom turned their heads to look at Axl, and Addilyn was definitely one of them. She turned her head around to look at Axl, and he grinned when he saw her reaction at his presence. "Yo Addie! Guess what? I'm joining your club!" Axl used a nickname he wasn't sure she would approve of as he high-fived some students in the class as he made his way over to her.

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><p>Edited version will be up: 1229 (at the latest)

Next chapter update: 1/1


	4. Apologies

I'm so so so so so sorry for the super long absence. My life has had a lot of hurdles recently, and I'm not very good at jumping. For the last few months, I've been running straight into these hurdles, instead of jumping over them. Now my legs have at last broken from continuous impact, and I can no longer participate in this hurdle jumping game.

As you may know, this is all a metaphor, I'm not an actual hurdle jumper, I'm a teenage girl who's been diagnosed with one too many diseases, and I just didn't have the time to balance school, my mental/physical health, and everything else. About half a year ago, I was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, as well as major depression and panic disorder, not to mention chronic migraines that make me both light and sound sensitive.

The anorexia coupled with depression and suicidal thoughts created events that lead me being admitted into hospital, and after that, I just haven't had the time or inspiration to write again. However, I'm out of the hospital now, and my life's slowly getting better. Although I can't tell you when the next chapter of this story will be, just know that it is NOT abandoned, I am NOT dead, and I'm really sorry for being absent for so long. I promise to keep up with this story, and I'll be posting soon.

Thanks, and I hope you all understand.

xx

-Maria


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